Lane Hossum
Mr. Latham
MUS 005
12 November 2013
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter, born December 4, 1969, started his life off as a regular kid, just like every other kid. He was born and raised in a part of New York City known as Marcy, also known as the projects. Shawn was one of four children belonging to Gloria Carter and Adnis Reeves. Early on, his friends game him the nickname of Jay-Z or Jay for short. Who knew he was going to become the man he is today? Jay-Z was a former drug dealer, but is now known for being one of the most successful rappers and entrepreneur alive. According to Saddleback Educational PublishingJay-Z’s net worth is over $450 Million, he has over fourteen Grammy Awards, owns two 40/40 clubs, created his own clothing line [Rocawear], owns Def Jam Recordings, Roc-A Fella Records, and owns a minority share of the Brooklyn Nets.
His rap career started early on when he came upon a group circled up, clapping their hands to make a beat, with a kid named slate in the middle of the circle spitting out rhymes.
Jay-Z was very intrigued, he had never seen anything like it. Jay remembered, “It was like watching some kind of combat, but he was alone in the center. All he had were his eyes, taking in everything, and the words inside him. I was dazzled.” (Saddleback)
Jay-Z started writing down his own rhymes, he wrote at every opportunity, and stated by Saddleback, when he ran out of paper, he would go down to the store and buy a soda just to use the paper bag to write down even more rhymes. He found an older kid in Marcy named Jaz-O or Jaz and they would practice and have little rap battles between themselves all the time.
One time Jay-Z was listening to a different friend rap and realized something, that friend was using some of Jay-Z’s personal lyrics out of his own journal. It really got to him that someone might be able to read Jay’s rhymes, so he decided that he would no longer write anything down, but only memorize them from then on out. Some of Jay-Z’s influences came from bands like the Jackson 5, Commodores, Marvin Gaye, and other soul artists.
Jay-Z’s father left in 1981 when he became addicted to drugs. Without having a father figure his family’s life, the siblings began to change. One of Jay-Z’s brothers, Eric, became addicted to crack, and with that he began to steal things to pay for it. One night Eric came to steal a ring from Jay and Eric would not listen when Jay told him to stop and give it back, so Jay-Z shot his brother in the arm with a gun. Eric survived the injury but tells the cops he had no idea who did it. Later in Jay-Z’s years, he raps about it in his songs.
Not much later from that, Jay-Z dropped out of school and started selling drugs, it was quick and easy money. While he started going down that path, his childhood friend Jaz-O continued rapping, and landed a contract with EMI in London. As Jaz was heading down there, he asked Jay to accompany him and do a few songs with him. After the album dropped, it got the attention of another artist that goes by the name of Big Daddy Kane. Big Daddy Kane was just about to go on tour with a few different artists such as Tupac and Queen Latifah. Jay-Z was invited to join Kane on the tour but there would be no income for him.He would just get the satisfaction of having a bed, food, and a roof over his head, and also having the chance to rap in-between the mainperformer’s acts.
Shortly after, EMI wanted to do a single for Jaz-O but it wasn’t Jaz’s style. When the record did not do so well, EMI dropped him and wanted to pick up Jay-Z. Jay-Z declined their offer because of the disrespect they showed towards Jaz on dropping him like that (Saddleback).
Jay-Z went back to selling drugs after that because after EMI the rap dream looked hopeless. He realized how much money it would cost him to have studio time, have someone create the tracks or use sample music from others, and produce the CDs. Just making one song could cost him thousands of dollars. Jay-Z had another friend who had become a successful DJ from Marcy, named Clark Kent. Kent tried to have Jay come down to the clubs and perform and make a few hits for Atlantic but Atlantic was not willing to pay, which means everything comes out of Jay’s pocket. Eventually after enough calls, Kent gets Jay to rap with Sauce Money in Sauce Money’s song, which meant that Sauce Money pays for everything, which Jay-Z happily agreed to. Atlantic liked what they heard, which inspired Jay-Z to get back on track with rapping and forget about the drug business, not to mention the dangerous life that goes with it. After that, he and Kent went to a producer from Harlem that goes by the name of Damon Dash. They made a few singles and at first, had to sell them out of the back of Dash’s car (Saddleback). Eventually they got the attention of a company called Payday Records.
In 1996 Jay-Z wrote the album Reasonable Doubt. While recording this album, Jay was unhappy with Payday and their methods, and when they told him he could make a few music videos for the album, they ran out of money in the process and that’s when Jay-Z said that’s enough, he wanted out.
When Jay went on his own, Clark Kent worked with Biggie on his record and convinced Biggie (who was one of the top hip-hop artists at the time) to do a song with Jay-Z. They recorded “Brooklyn’s Finest.” When this song came out, it showed that Jay could hold his own in retrospect to one of the biggest hip-hop artists around, which helped make him big. Biggie and Jay became part of the East Coast/ West Coast hip-hop battle, against the West Coast Death Row. Death Row included rappers like Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and Dr. Dre. During this rivalry Biggie and Tupac were both shot and killed.
At this point, Jay and Dash were getting very popular and decided that instead of going to a new company, they were going to start their own; Roc-A Fella Records (Rolling Stone). Roc-A Fella Records ended up in a deal with Def Jam Recordings. In this case, Jay-Z was able to make a deal to split the profits with them and Jay even got to keep the royalty fees, which at that time never happened. It was a benchmark in history.
After making a two more albums, he noticed that someone was leaking all his songs early and got upset when he found out that it was his producer- Lance Rivera. Caught up in the moment, Jay-Z stabbed him and served three years of probation. As Roc-A Fella became more successful, Jay’s taste in clothes got more expensive too. He started wearing nothing but Iceberg and even rapped about it too. Iceberg was getting so much attention and profit from all the promoting Jay-Z was doing, that when Jay-Z asked them to sponsor him and pay him to wear their clothes, they said no. That made him and Dash upset, and intern, they decided to create their own clothing style and call it Rocawear. In less than two years Rocawear sold over $80 million in clothes.
As time went on, Jay-Z became an even better businessman. He decided to expand his entrepreneurial into clubs as well. In June of 2003, Jay opens up his first 40/40 club, an upscale, sports themed club. Soon after that, he retired from the rapping game after his release of his eighth studio album The Black Album in 2004, which is also when he was named president of Def Jam and Roc-A Fella. His new main job was to get upcoming stars to sign on to his label. One of his biggest deals was Rihanna. At that time he also was able to bid and become a minority shareholder of the Brooklyn Nets (Hiphop Archive).
After three years of retirement from rapping, he decided that he could sit no longer, he was to get back into the game. In 2006 he released his comeback album entitled, Kingdom Come. And by the end of 2007 he decided to resign as head of Def Jam and create a new company of his own; Roc Nation. It was to be more than a record company, but one that also managed performers, publish music, and handle the careers of new artists.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé got married on April 4, 2008. Then in 2009 he released Blueprint 3, and with that the number one single “Empire State of Mind.” Because of this songs major hit, it became the anthem to New York City. In 2011 he released one of his most top grossing albums yet, “Watch the Throne,” produced with Kanye West. And finally on January 7, 2012, the love of his life gave birth to his beautiful baby daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Just like that, Shawn Corey Carter went from some low down drug seller to the multimillionaire entrepreneur and rapper that we all know as Jay-Z. Today he still continues to branch out, and now owns a second 40/40 Club in Chicago, he owns part of a company that sells skin and hair products, and has a line of sneakers and restaurants to go on top of that. But he’s not just about making money for himself, but has also given plenty away through his charity called the Shawn Carter Foundation, and he has also donated a million dollars to the Red Cross for victims of Hurricane Katrina (Saddleback).

Bibliography

"Jay-Z." Rolling Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/jay-z/biography>.
"Jay-Z Timeline." The Hiphop Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.hiphoparchive.org/prepare-yourself/jay-z-timeline>.
Saddleback. Jay-Z. Costa Mesa: Saddleback Educational, 2013. Print. Hip-Hop Biographies.